Integrity consulting service to 15 bodies, including Cultural Heritage Administration and Seoul City

From this month, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) will begin providing customized consulting service to public organizations aiming to improve their integrity.

On April 5, the ACRC announced that it would offer integrity consulting to several organizations, including the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, which have requested in-depth assessment and solutions regarding corruption-prone areas.

Through its integrity consulting service, the ACRC examines organizations with low levels of integrity from various angles—inspecting such aspects as corruption-prone areas, unreasonable systems, and the handling of staff—and, if problems are discovered, provides solutions customized to each organization.

Out of 66 organizations that requested consulting service last February, the ACRC selected 15 organizations that have continued to record low integrity. The increase—from the 9 organizations selected in 2016—was due to the increased number of organizations requesting consulting this year.

In order to offer effective solutions, the ACRC will assess each organization’s anti-corruption capacity and identify any obstacles hindering integrity.

To achieve this objective, the ACRC representatives will visit each site to conduct in-depth interviews and surveys of staff, as well as with stakeholders both inside and outside the organizations.

The ACRC agents will also review relevant materials—such as internal rules and control systems, records of corruption occurrences, results of external audits, and media reports—in order to intensively analyze each organization’s failure to improve integrity.

If solutions are prepared according to assessment results, organizations voluntarily establish and implement improvement plans. Policy councils are also established to oversee discussions between assessed organizations and the ACRC.

According to an anonymous ACRC official, “The ACRC expects that integrity consulting will positively transform organizations with low integrity. This will influence the organizations at all levels, thus improving overall integrity in the public sector. We look forward to having more organizations receive integrity consulting.”

Between 2006 and last year, integrity consulting has been provided free of charge to 86 organizations.